Animals "Adopting" Other Animals...and Ultrarunning

Light posting this week.

In keeping with my earlier post about the wolf pups at the Catoctin Zoo, via National Geographic we read this fascinating info about animals who may "adopt" other animals, even those of a different species altogether:

...in some cases, an animal will adopt one of its own species, which is instinctual. "Instinctively animals take care of young to help them survive and therefore pass on the family DNA," Holland said. "So I think there's some hard wiring in there that leads them to offer care to another animal in need. If it isn't a relative, there maybe some wires crossed, but I think the behavior comes from the same place."

 Greyhound with owl...image credit Nat Geo, here

I've never seen this phenomenon myself, but I'm waiting for the day when I'm running in the backcountry and see a squirrel riding on the back of a deer....

 

The Cutest Critter EVER!

Over the weekend we took Mister Tristan (the 5-year-old human being, not the blog) to the Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo.

This is a small zoo in Thurmont, MD, ideal for families: large enough to have a decent array of critters both large and small, yet compact enough to be doable for children.

Anyway, they have a litter of gray wolf pups that were born on 22 April, and I can honestly say I have never seen anything cuter.  They were running an wrestling and tumbling, then one of the pups cut loose with a small howl.

You just wanted to scoop them into your arms and eat them up:

 

[image credit Gary]